Brian

That's one of the few things that is simply not cost effective to do yourself. You've got a trip to pick up the oil and filter, and a trip back to dispose of the used oil, plus the time it takes to actually lift the car, drain, and refill. I get my oil changes done by appointment, and talk motorcycles with the shop owner while the work is being done. With a coupon, it's around $25.

carbondated

Totally tubevisioned, good shops are not the exception to any rule anywhere, that's the ridiculous perception the OP was talking about. Most shops are good, good enough or fair, very few are actually bad. Even among the big chain shops.

Every major metro area has small independent local bike stores if you take the time to find them. Maybe they are not on the main drag with big lights that are easy to see from your car as you go by, but they are there. Even in midsize & small cities. Even in lots of large towns, even in a good many small towns if there are hills nearby.

Most shops do not have a policy of charging to look at a bike or work up a quote. Just like most auto shops don't, that is total BS and I defy anyone to show us a set of shops in any city that charge for quotes that can prove that "most" shops do this. I think you will have trouble finding even a few shops that do if you can find any.

if the poster above is in a place with "dozens" of shops I truly doubt that what they say about any of them has any merit at all.

Most shops have arrangements with both manufacturers and distributors. Most shops can in fact get you a tubular tire/rim laced unlaced laced at the shop your choice of hub etc. Chain stores might not do this for obvious reasons, the biggest being...you guessed it, very few people ride tubbies.

What this poster thinks is maybe the shop won't get the tubbie for them and then sell it at the price they obtained it for? That's the truth, just like when I buy a pound you ain't getting a quarter for 10 bucks even if that's what I paid for it, you want charity go to the soup kitchen and try to ride a piece of bread or get high with table salt.

Totally tubevisioned and precisely the completely self absorbed misperception that the OP was talking about. Do yourself a favor and disregard this guy. I think his post may have been a joke anyway.

carbondated

Or he could stick with you and just villify most of your regions shops?

Being as poor service and bad stock will cause most any business to go out of business, and that shops need regular, satisfied customers to stay afloat. Now take your anecdotal experience and juxtapose it against the empirical evidence that the shops are there and in business.

Answer = You have something wrong with your perspective of what these shops should be or do, since most people who enter them do not seem to have problem with them...How many situations do you know of where one dude is right and the rest of EVERYONE wrong on such a general topic?

As for your claim that you know more than certified mechanics...welcome to the answer for why you don't get on well with shops.

wroomwroomoops

I think you suck at comparisons: changing the oil in a car takes quite a bit more time than truing a wheel. Namely: you flip your bike and from the moment you start truing your wheel to when it's trued it can take from 5 to 15 minutes (depending on the mode in which it was out of true). That's much quicker than having to bring it to the LBS and either wait for it to be trued, or come to pick it up some other day. Not to mention much more convenient.

carbondated

The fact is without local bike shops most of you would see a bike go by, wonder what the hell it was, be to intimidated to spend that much online for some silly 2wheeled thing sight unseen, and end up never trying it. Local bike Stores, independent or big chains, put more bikes under butts than anything else ever period.

carbondated

I think you suck at accommodating the average consumer that has no earthly idea as to why the wheel wobbled at all. You are also immediately the guy to hang it over the head of the same consumer with your superiority, discouraging them entirely.

Welcome to being what you despise.

edit: BTW, most people cannot change their own oil either. MAybe that isn't how it should be but that is how it is.

bumblebeetuna

(image removed)

carbondated

I am totally the guy with glasses, and his form is better too. Big fros are so last month, and what is with the Miami Vice jacket shirt combo there?

Scrodzilla

HAHAHAHA.

I love when threads like this turn into fights. Apologies for my comparisons not being up to certain people's standards. I was just trying to make the point that there are a lot of easy things that people don't even want to learn how to do themselves.

Carry on, fools.

carbondated

You trying to defend that jacket shirt combo? Cause I got naked pictures of Don Johnson to prove my point.

Just sayin.

Brian

Were you high when you wrote this?

wroomwroomoops

Just FYI, I rooted for Cyborg.

carbondated

Wouldn't I still be lol! c'mon this aint the place for grammar and **** is it? I like to think it is good enuff if it can be read at all based on te importance of the subject and context

carbondated

cornrolls are good for combat! who knew?

destikon

I love my shop (Spoke Shop in Billings, MT). They offer me alcohol when I come in.

carbondated

Dam straight, lube up that wallet, good policy

destikon

Haha!! I never thought about it that way.

Brian

Why wouldn't it be?

carbondated

I relied entirely upon those posts I had previously perused in this fine example of applied composition we regard as BikeForums.

hairnet

this is true, but at the same time a mechanic can probably do it a whole lot better than you can. In my previous post I said the mech. trued my wheel after I crashed. I had done a quick road-side truing job to make the wheel ride-able so I could get home, but I don't have a truing stand at home and it isn't so fun trying to use a brake caliper as a substitute.

wroomwroomoops

You had me at "This is true".

Anyone who has learned to true a wheel, can do it as well as a mechanic, but will take her/him 2-3 minutes longer. A truing stand is a nice thing to have (I have one, in fact) but not absolutely necessary - most of the time I do my truing with the wheel on the bike, using the brakepads for guideline. And guess what? I have not seen any of the bikeshops in my area, actually using a truing stand! I walked into each of them (each of those I visited), as I am very enthusiastic about bicycle mechanics, but they either hide their truing stands, or just plain don't have them. The few times I caught a mechanic truing a wheel, it was mounted on the bike.

People, trust me on this: anyone can true a wheel. I know, because I have very poor vision, and still can do it. I am not a bicycle mechanic, and I still learned how to true a wheel in one day. If I can do it, anyone can.

carleton

wroomwroomoops, relax, man. Everyone can't be like you.

It's awesome that you know how to true your wheels. I don't think that all bike shops in America should close because a guy in Finland can true his own wheels.

Relax, man and let it go. It's OK to disagree with people.

hairnet

I didn't say you can't, I was saying it's just tougher. My wheel was really whacked, I did most of the job, and I had the mechanic get it perfect. I didn't have a small wobble, some how the fall really did a good job.
yeah, poor vision. I can't see for crap without my glasses either.

wroomwroomoops

Who said bikeshops in US should close?

And really, what's so mystical about truing a wheel? People keep throwing that back at me as if it was some big deal, but it's really no more difficult than tying your shoelaces.

I'm relaxed.

carbondated

That's an amateurish opinion IMO. I ca true a wheel but I know many skilled & highly trained mechanics. Some specialize in wheel building among other things and their experience and methodology makes the difference between a wheel build that stays true for years from the build and one that is wobbling in a week.

The same is true of wheel truing. Anyone can get it "straight" or "true" by stand or by eye still mounted on the bike, but tensioning the wheel to an optimal rigidity is something else altogether.

In this experience and training make the difference a sizable one indeed between a mechanic and a guy with a spoke wrench and the internet.